Redemption
by Mini Goat
Summary: A new padawan has joined the Jedi Order. Will Mioti redeem his family's name? Or bring disaster to those who try to save him from himself.
1. Prolog

**A promising young student has been found by the Jedi on a distant world. The numbers of the Jedi are few, but those who teach are dedicated to their young students. One boy will forever change the course of the Order and the life of a certain small Coreillian Jedi Knight.**

Mioti Orea stood looking up at the Jedi Temple. He really wasn't sure why he was here. His parents were long dead and had been Sith in any case. He could do things when he was upset, angry. Terrible things. He'd been living on the streets of since the death of his parents. Surviving on nothing but his wits and a reputation for being dangerous when provoked. He'd been safe enough but lonely. He'd had no friends.

He'd learned to be careful as he got older. To not attract attention, but the tall man in brown robes had followed him anyways and Mioti had not been able to shake him in the winding streets of . Frightened, cornered in a blind alley, trapped, Mioti had finally turned on his pursuer.

"Get back!" He threw his thin arms forward, closed his eyes and imagined the man hurling backwards through the garbage on the street.

Mioti opened his eyes. The man was still standing there. Hood up. An enigmatic smile playing about his lips. Mioti trembled in fear. This had never happened this way before. When he imagined his attacker being hurled away, they were.

The glint of a lightsaber hilt shone from the side of the man's obi under his brown robe. Mioti cowered in fear for a moment and then he put his chin up and stood, legs apart, his hands bunched into trembling fists.

"Fine, just kill me and get it over with then. I'm sure you have better things to do than chase around the son of a Sith anyways."

The Jedi looked down at the small boy, barely over ten rotations. His smile grew. "Now why would I do that youngling?"

Mioti stared up at the man. The Jedi was smiling. No one but his mother had ever smiled at him that he could remember. The Jedi's smile reached his eyes. A strange thought entered Mioti's head and without realizing it he spoke, softly, almost to himself. "I don't have to fall to the dark side?"

"Not if you don't want to youngling. Not if you don't want to." The Jedi gave Mioti a searching look that made the boy squirm in embarrassment, it felt as though the Jedi was looking deep into his soul and Mioti knew he did not pass muster.

"But… my parents were Sith."

"They weren't always Mioti. Once long ago they were respected Jedi. If you come to the temple, let us train you… you can redeem their good names." The Jedi did not move throughout this exchange, waiting to see what the boy did.

"I can redeem them? How?" Mioti had been too young when his parents were ambushed and killed by the Sith to know or understand why. They had turned to the dark side before he was born. He had no way of knowing the Sith had attacked because his parents had fled and hidden on Hoth while they awaited contact from the Jedi so they could go home. The Jedi had been too late, his parents had been killed and his older brother had taken him and fled the planet. They had been separated later and Mioti no longer knew where his older brother was. The Jedi had been looking for the boys ever since.

"By becoming a Jedi as they once were." The Jedi smiled wider as Mioti, small, skinny, dark haired and dirty inched closer, his curiosity winning over his fear and aversion of close proximity of another.

Mioti was now almost close enough to touch the Jedi if he chose to. He could feel the sincerity from the man. He believed him. "All right, when do I start?"

The Jedi laughed. It was a warm low rumble sort of laugh and the boy's ears went red in embarrassment. "We'll get your things and leave for Coruscant within the hour."

"These are my things." The boy said simply of the cloths on his back.

"Then we will go now." The Jedi turned and walked out of the ally, knowing his small charge would follow. We'll need to get him some under cloths I think the Jedi mused in his head, and some hygiene products and a long hot bath as well and… The Jedi kept his thoughts to himself and lead the boy back to the hanger where his Jedi Order issue ship sat.

It occurred to Mioti that he had not gotten the man's name and realized it hardly mattered. He was getting off this rock for good and becoming something he never thought he could even hope for. He was going to be a Jedi.


	2. Floor Spice

The months passed. Mioti progressed steadily through his padawan training, making consistent progress. Of course, being a street rat he spent a lot of that time being reprimanded for not paying attention, lacking the proper caution and getting into trouble with his new group of friends and fellow padawans. For the first time in his life, Mioti was happy again. It made him miss his family. He knew if he could just talk one of the Masters into taking him to Hoth, he could discover which Sith had killed his parents, track them down and exact his revenge.

So far none of the Masters were willing to take him. He was told over and over that he was a Padawan and his place was in the temple. Mioti knew all he had to do was behave respectfully towards the Masters and Knights and he could pretty much get away with anything short of murder. He proved this by sneeking out as often as he could manage, sleeping in the tree in the middle of the meditation garden instead of his room in the temple and sassing pretty much anyone he liked.

The TapCafe was empty of everyone except Master Naberrie that night. No one paid much attention to her. She was known for being lax on her padawans and letting others deal with situations in the Temple. Mioti really hoped she would be his Master. It would make his life so much easier if he had a Master that just let him do anything he wished. She had Gertz and the Corellian had almost been kicked out of the Order from what Mioti had heard. She had only recently been taken off probation as a matter of fact. Master Skywalker had been really mad from what he'd heard from everyone and yet seemed to have relented quickly and for no apparent reason. There was a rumor that Master Skywalker was an old friend of Gertz and that's why Master Mara Skywalker had not simply ousted the young woman.

The security breech alarm was going off softly in the Café. Master Naberrie was ignoring it. Mioti decided to ignore it too in spite of the flash of green robes past the Café window indicating a Jedi was dealing with the problem. A short Coreillian one at that. There weren't very many of those around.

Jeff was jumping up and down and yelling something. Angie was leaning over the chair of another padawan, playfully batting her eyelashes. Padme rolled her eyes at Mioti and started telling him a joke.

Gertz stormed in and stared at the group of Padawans. "The group of you need to keep it down. I can hear you on the other side of the Temple."

"Sorry Gertz, we'll behave." Mioti said with a smile calculated to charm. It didn't quite work as Gert grunted out see that you do and stormed out when the alarm blew again, ignoring Ace as he came in and told her not to talk to the padawans that way.

Ace walked through the Cafe and sat across from Master Naberrie, smiled at her and hooked a finger over her data pad, slowly drawing it down so she would look at him.

Mioti plotted out his newest escape plan to sneak out of the temple. He debated about the coolness factor of climbing up to the roof and going from there. He wished Ithi and Grainne were there. They were fun and he could make them laugh. Mioti had discovered now that he had friends that there was nothing he loved more than to make them laugh. He liked Gertz because she made him laugh. She often had a story about something she'd done to the Rogues as part of their support crew or some prank she and her sister Kit had pulled on their older brother who was being groomed to be the Senator of Coreillia. If someone so much as mentioned Darb Yonsz both women rolled their eyes and groaned. It cracked Mioti up every time. He just wished it didn't make him wonder where his brother was.

The party was getting pretty loud again and out of hand. Padawans were throwing food at each other and Jeff especially was being loud and obnoxious. It was making everyone laugh so Mioti joined in to make them laugh harder.

The doors of the TapCafe blew in and Gertz marched in looking frazzled and furious. On her one of many runs back and forth across the temple that night she'd observed the newest crop of Padawans go from slightly rowdy to completely disruptive. They could be heard half way across the temple grounds.

The small, newly minted Jedi Knight glowered at the group of them. "Do you suppose you guys could keep it down?" She snarled out. Her curly hair having come done from it's bun and now tumbling over her shoulders. Mioti was only fifteen standard rotations and Gertz was almost twice his age but he wasn't immune. She was pretty. Mioti sort of wished she was younger or he was older or more importantly, that she wasn't already seeing Wes Janson. Who could compete with one of the greatest flying aces of the Rebellion. Gertz looked really mad. Master Naberrie seemed to be ignoring the situation still and that seemed to rile the Knight up more.

"Hey Gerty, don't be mad, we were just having fun." Jeff Hardy grinned at Gertz in a smarmy sort of way which didn't seem to help things as far as Mioti could tell.

"You guys need to settle down right now. This is a Jedi Temple not a romp-a-room." Gertz glared them down. "And you Jeff, will address other Jedi respectfully."

Jeff smirked back at her as if to say what are you going to do little Jedi, I'm bigger than you. Lazer brains Mioti thought of Jeff. Gertz can and would mop the floor with his friend if he provoked the little Knight far enough. It was starting to look like he'd gone just about far enough.

"The group of you will clean this mess up right now. Your behavior is completely inappropriate. You are Jedi not a bunch of hooligans. I can't believe I've spent my entire night chasing through the temple kicking Sappy and his little thug buddies out before they destroy the temple and you all have been In here horsing around and making a mess." She referred to the food they had been chucking at each other as well as shredded flimsy mixed in and a bit of Jeff's blood.

"Hey, you can't talk to them like that." Ace got up and towered over Gertz.

Uh oh… Mioti thought. Double Uh oh when Master Luke walked in to the Café.

"How is everyone tonight?" He asked simply, a small serious smile on his face. He already knew.

"Master Luke." Gertz' voice was relived but the look she gave Mioti and his group of friends stated 'you're gonna get it now'. "Master Luke, we've had a security breech. Sappy and his buddies have been sneaking in all night, painting graffiti on the walls, destroying temple property and making a mess. I com'ed Master Seiga but was told he didn't have time nor the inclination to deal with it. Master Naberrie knew what was going on and has just been… sitting there…" Gertz spat the words. "and in the mean time these padawans have completely trashed the café."

Luke looked around and saw the mess the padwans had made, weighed Gert's words against the nights events. He'd seen the security holos of her systematically extracting Sappy's buddies from the temple. She'd been doing it for a couple of hours and not one Jedi had raised so much as a finger to help. Not even when she'd asked.

Luke was not pleased. Nor was he pleased when Ace spoke up. A Knight, he should have paid attention to the security alarms or at the very least, asked the padawans to settle down in case there had been a real threat. Opting to flirt with Gert's former master, he'd done neither. Nor had Master Naberrie. "Leave them alone, they weren't hurting anything."

Gert, Luke could tell, was doing her best to be a good Jedi to make up for her previous mistakes and prove she was up to the task of being a Knight. His own padawan, Gert's sister Kit had filled him in on some of the reason why Gert lashed out. He'd turned Rogue Squadron over to Wedge shortly after the unit had fallen under his command so while he knew Gert he had never been close to her. Nevertheless, he knew she was a good person, level headed, intelligent and a quick learner. She was not the sort to get upset without reason nor was she prone to stretching the truth or over reacting.

"What do you think should be done Gert?" Luke finally asked her, knowing what the answer probably was and approving of it. Jedi teach humility not humiliation. She was within her rights to punish the group of padawans for disobeying her as she'd been in earlier and asked them to keep it down. Gert had learned well from her Master Stitch, the punishment would be just and would teach the students a valuable lesson as well.

"I'm exhausted Luke. We don't have enough security but Sappy and his buddies are just thugs. These kids need to clean up this mess then check the security logs and go stand guard by the entrances so Sappy stops coming in and destroying temple property." She sighed in exhaustion. She was beat from running around all night.

"That sounds reasonable. You heard the lady kids, clean this mess up and go guard the entrances."

"You can't do that. That's humiliating." Ace snarled at Luke.

"You can't make me." Jeff said nastily, feeling he had an allie in the Jedi Knight Ace.

"Excuse me?" Gert said incredulously to both of them.

Both young men repeated themselves. Gert glowered and drew herself up, chin high and eyes afire. "Your behavior tonight Jeff has been completely irresponsible. While others worked you trashed a restaurant. You will do as Master Luke tells you." She turned on Ace. "Stay out of it Ace."

"No, he can't talk to them that way, he can't punish them that way like common servants. It's humiliating."

"Ace, that's enough. There's nothing humiliating about work." Luke said quietly.

"What would _you _know about work _Master_ Luke? You sit around in your office all day telling people what to do."

"How _dare_ you speak to Master Skywalker that way? How dare you be so disrespectful." Gert said furiously. "How dare you undermine his authority in front of padawans."

Ace snarled at Gert and turned to Luke. "Are you going to just let that padawan talk to me that way?"

"She's a Knight Ace and you're out of line, she's not. There's nothing humiliating about cleaning up the mess you made yourself nor helping others rather than horsing around."

"Can we work in teams Master Skywalker?" One of the padawans asked him. The others nodded. All of them except Jeff were happy to get off with such a light punishment of guard duty and KP.

"I don't see why not. Get the mess cleaned up here as quickly as you can."

"That's it, I refuse to be treated so disrespectfully by someone who doesn't deserve her rank. The only reason You made Knight is because you were in the Rebellion with Master Luke." Ace sputtered at Gert and Luke.

"Ace…" Master Naberrie said gently.

"No… I'm done here. No one respects Knights. Lest of all _you_ Master Skywalker." He grabbed his robe and stormed out, his eyes a disturbing shade of red around the rims. Master Naberrie stared after him in tears.

"Luke… I didn't…" Gert started, looking miserable.

"You didn't do anything wrong Gert. You earned your status as a Knight more than anyone else in the Order has had to. Master Stitch taught you well. You gave those padawans work to keep their hands busy instead of a punishment. Ace not being able to see that is not your fault." Luke smiled down at Gert who stood eye level to his chin. Mara had been furious that Gert had almost incited a war but had thought the reason the Sith were so angry rather hilarious. If a little flaming bag of droppings on their doorstep was all it took to set them off the Jedi were not obligated to tolerate their arrogance as they had been doing for a while until their numbers increased.

Gert sighed heavily. "Yah, well, I'm glad someone sees it that way." She shrugged pragmatically. "I'm sorry for yelling at Ace. I didn't mind him being rude to me, he has been a Knight much longer after all, but he had no business being disrespectful of you or your orders."

"Don't worry about it Gert. I'll take care of the situation." He smiled a little. "It's my job."

"So it is." She started to say something else when Jeff cut in.

"That's it. I'm done. I'm not cleaning anything else and I'm sure as heck not babysitting hallways tonight." The other padawans let out a collective gasp of shock. They all knew Master Skywalker was not one to be triffled with and Gert could be very scarry when crossed. She whirled on the boy now.

"I beg your pardon?" She said in a soft, furious voice. "Do you know what happens when a Master tells you to do something and you don't do it?" She stared deep into the boy's eyes. "Do you?"

"No, why don't you tell me." Jeff sneered.

"Well in my experience when you don't make up for messing up, they kick you out. So I guess you better decide if you want to be a Jedi or not." Her tone was soft but level and Mioti mentally cheered her on while he swept up pie crust from the floor. He made a mental note to never maker her mad because she was kind of scary, even if he had to lie.

Jeff stared at Gert for a very long time before he turned and snatched the broom away from Mioti, muttering a nasty epitaph about Gert's linage.

The padawans finished cleaning and Luke sent them out of the café to clean up after Sappy and his friends. "Have a good night Gert."

"You too Luke… er, I mean Master Skywalker."

"Luke is fine Gert. There's no one here but you and I." He smiled. They had never been close but they had run in the same circles in the Rebellion and his being second in command of the Jedi Order and it's founder complicated their social interactions unnecessarily. He preferred those who had known him for some time simply address him by his given name. Gert's upbringing reflected Leia's and he knew it could be very hard for her to remember titles don't mean anything between friends when no one is watching.

She would eventually relax the formality between them, especially once she made Master but it was hard for her to draw the public line versus the private one. She sighed and plopped down in a booth as he left, exhausted.


End file.
